Freaks
by XxAliceannaxX
Summary: He had brought her onto the case because she had relationships with the victims and the suspect. He never imaged that she would become so close to him. Eventual LxOC. Rated T for language.


**Author's Note: This is the redone version of **_**Freaks. **_**If you read the original, please read this one as well. This one's much better ^^ The first was published only because I was at a family member's house and due to several technical difficulties, I had to post it online to be able to keep it. Thanks to those lovely people who reviewed. They helped me a lot in rewriting it ^^ On a different note, this is my FIRST fan fiction. Ever. I'm so excited about this! This is also the first serious writing I've done other than school assignments and the occasional poem. Please enjoy and review ^^ Oh, and because one of my friends asked, L is now 26 and Caddie is 21 ^^**

He had brought her onto the case because she had close ties with the victims and the most probable suspect. At most, he had expected her to give him valuable insight into the relationship between the suspect and the victim. L never expected her to become so close to him.

L had Mr. Cole bring her in for questioning. L, of course, stayed out of sight and observed. He briefly went over the file they had on her.

"Cassandra Ellis… American, degree in psychology… Strange that she has a degree in psychology yet she's an artist, a game animator at that… Has a small apartment here in London," L mumbled to himself. Nothing unusual about her, other than her profession, but that wasn't anything that would help him. Of course, he was still curious, that was his nature, but he pushed the meaningless inquiry out of his mind and continued reviewing her file. Combing through the small details this time.

L had returned to England after solving the Kira Case. After the loss of Watari, Roger had taken up his position as L's handler. The shinigami Rem had written down Watari's name and had somehow become too weak to finish writing L's name. L wasn't sure what had happened to the Death God, but no one had seen it since that night. They recovered the notebook from a pile of dust found on the floor in a supply closet. The last thing written in the note was Watari's real name, Quillsh Wammy, and the beginning of L's true name, though the shinigami hadn't gotten further than the "w". L remembered the look of panic on Light Yagami's face after discovering that L hadn't died, though he quickly recovered his posture and acted as everyone else was, in a state of confusion and panic. L was, of course, shocked. Fortunately, it didn't take him long to get a handle on his grief enough to think clearly. He had quickly understood that Light had intended to kill him indirectly, and Light was convicted and sentenced to death soon after. All of the known Death Notes were destroyed, L had contacted Roger, and now here he was in England once again.

Presently, he was working on a case of serial killings in London. This case was strange though. The eleven victims had almost nothing in common, other than the fact that they were all young adults. The only other thing that made him sure that it was a serial killer is the strange marking found carved into the left ankle of every victim. No one had been able to decipher what the marking was or what it was supposed to represent. It was just scribble-like lines that didn't resemble any language, nor did the lines seem to form pictures. If anything, they resembled the loop or spiral at the center of a thumbprint.

In all truth, L was rather bored, despite still mourning the loss of Watari. None of the recent cases had caught his attention. He had solved three cases in the past two months and none had been a true challenge to him. Even this one was on the verge of being solved. L was 87% sure that the man they had in custody was the murderer.

The man's name was Jonathan Greene. When they had searched his flat, they found sketches of the same marking found on the corpses, as well as pictures and notes on each of the victims. Greene also had been keeping track of Cassandra Ellis (most likely because he knew of her relationships with two of the people he'd killed and, that she knew him). It was likely, if L hadn't taken Greene into custody, she would've been next. She didn't know this and L had no intention of telling her. It might cause her to panic. The sketches, pictures, and notes were probably enough to convict Greene, but not enough to satisfy L's curiosity. He wanted to know what the marking meant, and as of now, Greene wasn't talking.

Yawning, and stabbing what was left of his piece of cake onto his fork, he looked back up at the screen.

"I had to leave around 10. I don't know when they left. I can't give you any more information than that. I'm sorry," the young woman replied to a question L hadn't heard. She was relatively short, about 5'2" or 5'3" by L's best estimate. She had dark brown, almost black, hair that was cut short with bangs that reached just past her eyebrows. She was wearing a grey shirt with loose-fitting jeans with tears and scuffs in them, and a pair of yellow Converse sneakers.

"Are you sure?" Mr. Cole asked (again).

"Yes! Of course I'm sure. I've told you that three times already," she said, sighing. "Now, can I leave? I have to get back to my studio. We're getting close to our deadline." She stood, grabbed her purse and coat, and made to leave the room.

"Wait, Ms. Ellis?" She turned as a filtered voice came through a speaker on the wall. She hadn't noticed it before. She also didn't see the cameras and microphones. Of course, she had seen the very obvious cameras hanging from the ceiling, the cameras that were _supposed _to be seen. But she was just now seeing the cameras placed more discreetly throughout the room. _How did I miss those? I'm usually the first to notice those kinds of things… _

"Caddie. And yes? What is it?" She was irritated. L could tell that there wasn't much more he would get from her today. She was nearing the end of her patience.

"Alright, Caddie. I believe that it may be useful to the investigation for you to be interviewed once more. Tomorrow at 6:30 PM. Is that alright with you?"

"Is this really necessary? I've told you all I know."

"I believe it may be helpful. Yes, it is necessary. Will you be free at 6:30?" Now L was getting irritated. He had always hated stubborn witnesses.

"I'll probably still be working at 6:30. We've been very busy lately."

L thought for a moment.

"We'll tell your workplace that you have a very important appointment that you can't miss. Please be sure not to tell anyone the exact nature of this 'appointment'."

Caddie simply nodded.

L clicked off his microphone and sighed as the strong-headed young woman left the room. She may be difficult, but she may also hold the one piece of evidence that he needed to prove Greene's guilt. After all, she was the only person with both a connection to two of the victims _and _the prime suspect. In fact, there was even a small chance that she had committed the murders. He would have to keep a closer eye on her.

It was late November and snow had already fallen twice in London, just as it was now.

Caddie huddled into her coat, trying to avoid the cold, white flakes that were melting in her dark hair and landing on her eyelashes, and waited for a cab.

"_My assistants are going to kill me! They already hate me, and now I'm late, just slowing them down even more," _she thought angrily as she boarded the cab and gave the driver his pay.

"Where to?" the cab driver asked with a 'get your shit and leave' air to his voice. She told him the location and then spent the next five minutes telling him how to get there, growing angrier by the minute. Caddie then spent the rest of the ride fuming and trying to calm down. The driver wasn't talking and Caddie had _no _intention of talking to him, so the entire ride was silent.

As she calmed down, Caddie eventually was able to rationally think through the things that were troubling her. She had never been one to think rationally. She always reacted according to her emotions as soon as they came about (especially anger). She had been trying to stop herself from doing this, and now she was at least able to keep quiet until she calmed down.

There were a number of things troubling her. The first and the simplest, was her job. She had always put her work first because it was straightforward and she could do it to the best of her ability fairly easily. She had been working on "The Project" for over a year now. "The Project" was a video game that had been 5 years in the making. Caddie was hired when one of the animation assistants died in a car crash. It had been only a month since she moved to London, and a month of intense job hunting and near homelessness, all while attempting to put herself through college. She had quickly climbed ranks and was soon assistant manager. "The Project" was due to be finished in two months and she was anxious of the final product. Caddie had always been a perfectionist, never satisfied with her work and never wanting to announce it "finished" until it was perfect, which it never was.

The second thing troubling her was her father. His birthday was in two weeks. She had gotten stressed last year too. Two years ago, at the end of her senior year of high school, she had gotten in an argument with him. It had been about her future. Caddie had always, _always _wanted to be an artist, but her father was concerned that it was too risky. They had saved up enough money for 4 years to any school in their state, Alabama. Caddie had wanted to use the money to go out of state and enroll in 2 years of art school and her father refused, telling her that she should invest in something more "practical", though he eventually caved to her insistence to going to school out of state. He understood her hatred of the South, he hated it too. They were atheists living in the middle of the Bible Belt, so their door had been knocked on by many religious folk "spreading the word", each time just driving them both to be even more unreligious. Caddie's mother had died the day after giving birth, and since then, they hadn't had the money to move. A few days after that fight, Caddie took all of the money out of her college account, bought the first ticket to England, and left in the middle of the night, leaving only a note for her father. She used what was left of her money to rent a cheap apartment in London. She had considered calling him, but always changed her mind at the last moment, thinking that he would force her to come back. She still felt guilty.

Lastly, she thought of her two friends that had been murdered. Adeline and Roger. Her only two friends… Caddie was shy so she almost never talked to people, and at work she was strict and completely focused on the task at hand, so the vast majority of her coworkers hated her. She had met Adeline on the plane to England. Caddie had ended up in the seat next to her and Adeline had talked incessantly, telling every detail of her life and why she was going to London and why she was wearing a certain necklace and whatever else happened to cross her mind. Adeline was a wealthy, straight-A student in high school and had been in an exchange program her junior year, so she decided that immediately after senior year she was going _back _to England, to stay this time. Caddie's relationship with Roger had been much simpler. Roger had been hired by "The Project" only weeks before Caddie, so they had both been on the bottom, just running errands and doing what no one else would. They had started talking and formed an easy friendship; they both were pessimistic and had witty senses of humor. She felt like he was one of the few people who actually understood her.

That day, they had all been out together. Caddie was forced to leave early due to an emergency at work. Roger and Adeline had walked home together; Adeline had drank too much, just like she always did when they went out, so Roger was supporting her. They were attacked about 2 or 3 blocks down the street and their bodies were discovered in the morning by an elderly woman walking her various miniature dogs.

Though there was still no proof of it, and Caddie didn't even know of the evidence against him, she had convinced herself that it was Jonathan Greene who killed them. She didn't know him well, he was just a man that used to live near her, but they way he had smirked at her the next day had been enough proof for her. She was happy he had been convicted. He couldn't hurt anyone anymore.

The cab came to a stop in front of an office building and she stepped out, mumbling thanks to the driver, who grunted in return. Her assistants would probably be furious with her. She had a good excuse for being late. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be using it because they had told her to keep her mouth shut.

Taking a deep breath, she walked through the spinning door and prepared for an all-nighter.

L let out an exasperated sigh and put his head down on the desk in front of him.

"_One thing. Just one small thing, and this would all be solved," _he though irritably.

It was around four or five in the morning and he was exhausted. Being an insomniac, he hadn't slept in almost three days. He was at his limit. His mind was fuzzy and he just couldn't put two and two together.

"L, you should get some sleep. You'll think more clearly," Roger said as he entered the room.

"Yeah…," he mumbled as he slid out of his chair and stumbled into his room. He removed his shirt and, not bothering with his jeans, lie down and fell asleep almost instantly.

Roger sighed as he switched off the many monitors and collected the dishes that had gathered throughout the day of the table in front of L's chair.

L woke at about 6 AM. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, slipped his shirt back on, and went to the bathroom attached to his master suite to prepare for the day. He had rented the entire top floor of the hotel. Roger had his own room next door and there were several other rooms that were also available in case they needed them. It was doubtful that they would. L was working with several police officers but he had not shown his face to them, and any interrogations were taking place at the police station. After the Kira Case, he had gone back into hiding and unlikely to ever work with anyone again.

He was in a bad mood today, not that he was ever in an especially "good" mood. He had been having nightmares every time he slept lately. He had always disliked sleeping; it took up time that he could be working. But now he hated sleep for an entirely different reason. Every time he slept, he would have terrible nightmares. The worst kind of nightmares, because they had actually _happened_. He dreamt of his time in the orphanage, of the verbal and sometimes physical abuse he suffered there. Watari had adopted him and taken him to Wammy's when L was only 5. L still had nightmares from time to time that Watari would get tired of him and take him back to the horrible place. L knew this fear was foolish because he was 26, an adult, and Watari was dead… Nevertheless, that fear had haunted him his entire life.

Caddie got out of work at 6:15 PM. It had been weeks since she had truly slept, due to the man in the apartment next to her that appeared to bring home a different woman each and every night, the man upstairs that sobbed loudly for about three to four hours starting at eleven-ish, and the occasional late nights or all-nighters at work. She ran almost completely on coffee, though even that wasn't helping her now. She was quite literally exhausted. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep, but there was that stupid interrogation…

"_Damn…" _She was having trouble staying awake long enough to wait for a cab. Her head was bobbing and a few passerbies were staring, but she was too tired to care.

When a cab finally stopped, she gave the driver the address and caught a few minutes of sleep in the backseat.

"Um… Miss…?" She woke to a rather beefy woman gently shaking her shoulder. She jumped, causing the driver to jump as well. As she realized where she was and what was going on, she quickly apologized and stepped out of the car. She shivered in the cold air (though she was glad for the boost of alertness it gave her) and walked into the building.

"Ok… Ms. Ellis, please try your best to stay awake… Tell me everything you know about him, don't leave anything out."

"I told you…" she mumbled, her eyelids drooping. She really was trying to stay awake. She hated sleeping in front of people, but she was just so tired…

The speaker crackled to life. "Mr. Cole, this is pointless. I will speak to her."

"Be my guest," Cole replied.

"Caddie, from the state of you, you haven't slept in the last 24 hours at least, have you?"

"I haven't…" She was falling asleep.

"_She's too tired to get any information out of her and I would like to get this over with as quickly as possible. Not to mention that I have a fair amount of suspicion of her as well… I want to cover all possible options… It appears I have no choice."_

"Roger," he said, covering the microphone so it wouldn't pick up his voice, "go pick her up and give her one of the extra rooms."

"L… are you sure?"

"Yes. It is the only way to get this over with quickly and be as thorough as possible."

Turning back to the monitor and the microphone, he said, "Caddie, a car will pick you up in five minutes. Go wait for it outside, please."

"Wha-?" she began but stopped and scowled as she heard the speaker click off. She grabbed her things and trudged outside into the snow.

After about 4 minutes, a black limo stopped in front of her and an elderly man got out, opened the door, and gestured for her to get in. She did so, too tired to protest and too tired to think about that she didn't even know where she was going and who she was going with. "_If the man on the speaker is with the police, I suppose he can be trusted…" _she thought sleepily, leaning her head on the car window. After about 15 seconds, she was asleep again.

She was more aware when the car stopped this time and allowed herself to be led into a very nice hotel (one she always passed on her way to work and had often dreamt of staying in), into an elevator, and up to the very top floor. The man led her to a room (a very nice one) and said something along the lines of: "This is your room. We will check up on you regularly." Caddie walked over to the king sized bed and collapsed on it. She was asleep again within minutes.

Roger walked back into L's room.

"She's here?" L asked.

"Yes. She was asleep before I even left the room."

"Ok. What room is she in?"

"Room 623."

"Ok…" L mumbled, turning on the cameras located in that room. He saw her sprawled across the bed, her short dark brown hair covering the majority of her face. He bit his thumbnail. There was something intriguing about this woman. He wanted to know more about her, for the sake of the case, of course. There was something about her…

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. This case had gone on for far too long.

**Author's Note: I rewrote this chapter several times cause I was never happy with it, though I think I like the finished product ^^ I'll update as quickly as I can ^^ Thanks for reading and please review so I can improve my writing skills 3 **


End file.
